Our text this week serves as the conclusion to this first major section of Paul’s letter to the Romans, and it is a fitting summation. In 1:18-32, Paul held up the sinfulness of humanity in rejecting God and refusing to worship his as Creator – with a particular emphasis on the Gentiles. In 2:1-3:8, Paul laid out the reality of God’s judgment even on those who attempt to keep the law because of their inevitable breaking of that law – with a particular emphasis on the Jews. In our section this morning, 3:9-20, Paul sums up the arguments he has already made. In many ways – like a skilled artist – he puts the finishing touches on this appalling picture of humanity. So, as we look at the text this week, we will be reminded once again of the true standing of every human being in the world apart from the grace of God. Paul brings together the main threads of his argument, attempting to rightly portray the true “badness” of the bad news of which he is speaking. His reason for this is that, beginning in 3:21-31 (which we will look at next week), Paul is going to lay out the glorious reality of the good news of the gospel. And tasting the bitter fruit of the depths of their own sinfulness prepares Paul’s readers all the better for the sweet taste of the gospel. So, with that in mind, Romans 3:9-20 is a very straightforward text. Paul really only has two main themes in the whole section. The bulk of the text is spent reinforcing the point that ALL PEOPLE ARE UNDER SIN (3:9-18). Paul then takes time to make clear that THE LAW IS MEANT TO MAKE THIS REALITY CLEAR (3:19-20). It is these two themes that drive the text this morning, so we will look at each one in turn.
Paul enters into this topic by using a question that plays off the question he asked in 3:1. Paul began chapter 3 by asking, “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?” Paul answered that question by saying that the advantage the Jews have is their possession of the word of God. And so, in 3:9, Paul asks, “What then? Are we Jews any better off?” Having just laid out a number of arguments that might have puffed up the Jews a bit (in 3:1-8), Paul makes clear that – in and of themselves – the Jews are no better off than anyone else. The advantages they possess, rather than coming from their own inherent superiority, come from the sheer grace of God.
The Wretched Power of Sin (3:9)
It is this reasoning that leads Paul to make the opening declaration of our text this morning as he writes, “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin” (3:9). So, in closing out his argument for the sinfulness of all humanity, Paul finally lays out the reason that all of humanity is in such a wretched condition. Up until this point, Paul has focused much of his attention on the outward actions that demonstrate that people are sinful. In 1:18-32, he made clear that people “suppress the truth.” He followed this up with a laundry list of sinful acts that serve as evidence of God’s wrath. Then, his tirade in chapter 2 is against those who break the law – specifically the Jews. The focus has been on the actions. But, in 3:9, Paul moves to the heart of the issue. Paul has hinted at it along the way: in 1:18, he said that people “by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,” and in 2:5, he said that the root problem of those who judge others while breaking the law themselves is a “hard and impenitent heart.” So, along the way, Paul has hinted at the fact that the problem is not merely the law-breaking of all people but the heart that lies behind that law-breaking: a hard and impenitent heart of unrighteousness. And, in our text today, Paul identifies the cause of such a heart: the heart of every individual is “under sin” or “under the power of sin.” So, before moving further into Paul’s defense for this statement, we must ask the question, “What does it mean that all people – Jews and Greeks alike – are “under sin.” Paul says “we have already charged” that this is the case, so part of the answer is found in the fact that all people sin. But for a fuller answer, we have to turn our attention briefly to the episode in Genesis 3 in the Garden of Eden. In the person of Adam, we are faced with an interesting enigma. In so many ways, Adam is like us: created by God, fully human, made in the image of God, made to glorify God, etc. But in one key way, Adam is not like us: Adam was the head of the human race, meaning that his actions affected all of those that would come after him. An imperfect, but somewhat passable, example would be the father of a family whose decisions affect not only himself but his wife and children also. In the Garden of Eden, Adam was endued with a heart and a spirit that could choose to obey the Lord or disobey the Lord. In many ways, Adam’s options were clearly before him. We know the path he chose: he disobeyed. The thing that seems to be difficult for us to understand is that when Adam disobeyed, he plunged all humans who would come after him into utter sinfulness. As Paul will argue in Romans 5:12-21, “sin came into the world” through Adam’s sin. And because of that sin, “death spread to all men because all sinned.” So, what came first for Adam? His sin or his sinful heart? It seems that Adam’s sin came first, but for those who come after, the order is reversed. Because of Adam’s sin, all people are now born with a sinful heart and so they sin. To use the words of Paul, all men are “under sin.”
The seriousness of this situation cannot be overstated: because of Adam’s fall, all human beings are infected to the very core with a sickness that causes them to reject God. Paul’s harbors no illusions about the true state of all people. Thomas Schreiner describes Paul’s thought this way, “…Paul thought that sin had wrapped its tentacles so tightly around human beings that they could not keep the law.”1
So, having focused a lot of attention on the way human beings actively break the law, Paul lays out that the problem is not merely skin-deep. The problem is a heart that is infected by sin. The problem is a heart that is dominated by sin. The problem is a heart that chooses to disobey God because there is no other choice that such a sin-permeated heart can make. Left to our own hearts, we by nature are all “under sin.”
The Evidence of Sin’s Power (3:10-18)
Having laid out the thought that all people are under sin, Paul uses a plethora of Old Testament quotes to drive home this reality in 3:10-18. Before looking at the specific quotes, we should take notice of the fact that Paul’s source of authority here is the word of God itself. There are any number of sources of authority that can be used in the inevitable human search for truth. However, especially for Christians, there should be no other primary source of authority. If Paul understands these Scriptures rightly (and we contend that he does), the quoting of the Scriptures themselves should be enough to convince us of the truth of Paul’s statement – even if no other source of authority was available.
The structure of the quotes Paul uses is fairly plain. The initial quote comes from Psalm 14:1-3 and generally indicts everyone in unrighteousness. Paul writes, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (3:10-12). So Paul begins in a very general way by pointing out the sorry state of every individual. Not only are people incapable of doing good, they do not even want to do good. Not only are people incapable of honoring God, they do not even want to seek him or honor him. So the wretchedness of sin is so deep that we not only are unable to do what is right, but we do not even want to do what is right. It is true that there is not a single human being who is able to perfectly keep the law and glorify God by nature. It is also true that there is not a single human being who, by nature, wants to keep the law so that they can glorify God. This initial quote fits well with the quote Paul uses to end this series. Quoting Psalm 36:1, Paul writes, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Here we have the reality that we saw in 1:18-32: the root of all sin is a refusal to acknowledge God. So Paul bookends this series of quotes with these all-compassing Old Testament statements about the depths of human depravity.
In the middle of these two quotes from Psalms are two specific themes. First, Paul points to specific sins of speech as evidence of the sin of human beings in verses 13 and 14. No doubt, Paul turns to this specific issue because of the extremely common nature of speaking and because the heart – Paul’s main focus in this section – is acutely revealed in the words that we speak. Paul uses Psalm 5:9 for its explicit imagery: “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” Paul likens that which comes out of the throat of human beings to that which comes out of the open grave of a rotting carcass. The image points once again to the rottenness of the human heart – from whence all our words come. Even the “positive things” that come out of our mouth are often merely deceitfulness under the guise of praise or encouragement. He uses Psalm 140:3 to point out the deadly nature of the things we say: “The venom of asps is under their lips.” Much like the asp strikes for the purpose of transferring its deadly venom to a victim, the things that come out of our hearts by nature are meant to destroy and hurt and wound others instead of build them up. James echoes this thought in James 3:8 when he says, “…no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” Paul rounds out his case by quoting Psalm 10:7: “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” By nature, we are wicked at heart – just look at our language and our conversations with another. The evidence is all too abundant.
Paul then points to the sheer destructiveness of human beings as evidence that all are under the power of sin in verses 15-17. Paul quotes Isaiah 59:7-8 to point out the sheer desolation that serves as proof that sin rules us as people: “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” Again, all we need to do is look at the long halls of history and we can see evidence of the very things that Paul is describing. In every place human beings have existed, there has been war and murder and strife. In every era that human beings have existed, there has been ruin and misery. Why is it that sin and destruction seem to follow human beings wherever they go? It is because in our hearts, by nature, we carry around the very seeds of our own destruction. We cannot escape that which lies within our very hearts. And that is Paul’s point. As Calvin writes regarding these verses, “There is no doubt but that the character of men is described in those words, in order that we may see what man is when left to himself; for Scripture testifies that all men are in this state, who are not regenerated by the grace of God.” 2
So, in vivid language, we see Paul’s summation of mankind in all of his wretchedness. It is a picture that quite possibly shocks us in its severity – a fact that is due not to Paul’s exaggeration but to our own failures in proper self-examination. Some might object that they have known individuals that do not fit this description and were not this wretched. Such a reality is due not to the fact that they were different than what Paul describes but that God restrained their wickedness, in his good purposes, for the advance of his kingdom. The evidence for the power of sin that Paul describes is all too abundant around us. The onus lies not with those who hold up the depravity of men but with those who hold up men as the model of excellence and sophistication. Just as Paul declared, and as we have seen from these 10 verses, “all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin” (3:9).
Having reiterated the main point that all human beings are under sin, Paul returns to the issue of the law that he raised in our text last week. If it is true that all people are under sin, why even have the law? If the law cannot be obeyed, what is its purpose? These are the questions to which Paul now turns his attention – the law has a very specific purpose in this whole scheme of salvation that Paul is laying out. Paul’s goal is to cause all people to realize their own sinfulness and their own liability to God’s judgment, and the law plays an integral part in that.
The law reveals the sinfulness of human beings (3:19-20).
Paul now turns his attention to the law and makes clear that the law is meant to indict human beings for the very sinfulness that he has been describing. He begins by saying, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law” (3:19a). Here Paul personifies the law by making it seem as if the law itself actually has a voice and can speak. And his first issue is this: to whom does the law speak? The answer is that the law speaks to everyone, because – as we saw in 2:12-16 – everyone has some form of the law. For the Jews, they have the written form of the law and that written law speaks to them. For the Gentile, they have the law written on their hearts and that law speaks to them in the form of their conscience. The law has a very clear message and that message is clearly spoken to all human beings. So, if we understand that the law speaks to everyone, what exactly is it that the law says? Paul answers that question in verse 20 by saying, “…by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” The law, as it speaks, condemns all those who have violated its statutes. The law speaks judgment and it does it by highlighting sin. It is the law itself that points out that the sins we commit are indeed sins. It is the standard by which our actions are measured. This is a reality that we must understand; the purpose of the law – the thing that is at the very heart of the reason the law was given – is that it was meant to reveal sin and not to provide a means to achieve righteousness. The fatal flaw of legalism is that it assigns to the law a purpose that the law was never meant to have. Paul writes, in Galatians 3:21, “…if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” By saying, “…if a law had been given that could give life,” Paul is assuming that the law that has been given is not able to give life. Its purpose is not to do that; its purpose is to reveal the sinfulness of our hearts. You see, sin predated the giving of the law. The law was not given as a solution to the problem but as a necessary step toward the ultimate solution of the problem. The law serves to identify the inherent wickedness of every human heart. And it performs that task flawlessly – speaking judgment to every individual who breaks its commandments. The law removes all excuses and calls everyone to accountability before God (3:19).
The final piece of Paul’s argument is that the result of our being measured by the law is that – in Paul’s words – we are excuseless and accountable to God. After saying that the law speaks to those under the law, he writes, “so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God” (3:19b). The imagery Paul uses is of an individual in court who is presented with all of the evidence against himself and is unable to speak even a word in his defense because he knows nothing can be said that will change the verdict. Like Job when he is confronted with God’s greatness and refuses to speak another word (40:4), Paul assumes that his readers – having been confronted with their own wickedness – will assume a like posture. Having had the sinfulness of our own hearts proven to us, the result is that all human beings – by nature – find themselves in a state of “excuselessness,” under the righteous wrath of God for their wickedness.
This truth might be best demonstrated by a personal story of a time when I found myself in such a position. At one point, in my early high school years, I was involved in a relationship with a girl that was not right or good. One day, after baseball practice, I decided to go to this girl’s house for a bit – an act of explicit disobedience against my parents. After going to her house, I drove to my house and (much to my surprise) found my dad already at home, having come home early from work. He was mowing the grass and, after I pulled into the driveway, he road over and asked where I had been. In a blatant moment of sinfulness I told a lie that my dad quickly refuted with evidence of his own. The conversation ended with my dad saying, “Why don’t you go into the house and think of a better answer to my question while I finish mowing and we’ll talk about it when I’m done.” In that moment, I found myself excuseless. There was nothing I could say to get myself out of my own guilt. I was guilty and that had been made clear. The reality Paul is describing is that reality. Human beings are all out of excuses. By nature we are sinful and by nature we are guilty and by nature we are under God’s judgment.
So, with these realities, Paul closes his argument for the sinfulness of all people. Since 1:18, Paul has been compiling evidence and building up a case against every human being. The result is that, at Romans 3:20, Paul wants his reader to find themselves in a situation of complete hopelessness – recognizing their own sinfulness and their own guilty stance before God. He wants them to readily feel their own just condemnation. He wants them to rightly understand that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (1:18). Does he want them to understand this so they will sink into despair? Of course not, Paul wants them to understand this so they will rightly understand and rejoice when he tells them that God’s righteousness has been revealed (in 3:21, which we will look at next week. He wants them to feel their own helplessness so that they see their need to cling to Christ and to place their faith in him. This is Paul’s desire.
So, having understood Paul’s point – and having come to the end of this first major section in Romans, we might ask “So what?” What are we to do with this information about the wickedness of our hearts? Let me start by saying that if you merely see this as information (in the head) then you will miss Paul’s point – which is to affect the heart. Ultimately, as the main point of application, I would say to every person in this room: recognize that you are a sinner and that there is no excuse for your sin.
If you are not a believer, recognize that you are a sinner and that there is no excuse that you can offer for your sin. Perhaps your heart is truly hard and impenitent, and you do not care about your sin. I plead with you to humble yourself and repent of your sins and belief on Jesus Christ. Recognize that the things you do wrong are ultimately offenses against God. Recognize that his wrath burns against you and the only way to change that is to believe in Christ. Why would you willingly die when eternal life is offered to you? Is the fruit of your sin and your wicked life really that great? Does it compare with joy unspeakable and life everlasting? Does it compare with having peace with God? Perhaps you maintain that, even though you are a sinner, you are not that bad. I would hold out to you James 2:10: “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.” If you have ever committed a single sin – even a sin of omission – then you are accountable to God’s judgment. The standard is not other people; the standard is God’s perfect law. Why would you try to maintain your innocence when such an effort is both futile and unnecessary? Jesus perfectly obeyed the law because we were unable to do so, and for those who believe in Christ, his perfect life is counted for us. He has done what we could never do. Perhaps you have heard the words of Paul and you are burdened by your own condemnation and helplessness. In your heart, you wonder, “Woe is me! All is lost! If I cannot do it, then I will die!” To you I would say, you are exactly where you need to be – recognize that there is nothing you can do and repent of your sins and place your faith in Christ. We need to feel our own helplessness so that we can see the need for Christ and his death, burial and resurrection. If you are not a believer, repent and believe in Christ and you will be saved. Our hopelessness is not the end if we will just believe.
If you are a believer, recognize that you were a sinner and that there was no excuse for your sin. You justly deserved the righteous judgment of God, but it did not come to you. Like the Jews Paul mentions in 3:9, we could ask, “Were we any better off?” The answer is a resounding “NO!” Left to ourselves, we would be wicked beyond belief. The horrible pictures of sin that we have seen over these last three weeks most certainly applied to us before the Lord showed us grace. I would exhort you to never forget the place from whence you came. It is a disgrace to Christ to forget your past wretchedness and sin because Christ died for that sin. Remember that past and exalt your Savior today and tomorrow and for the rest of your life. Remember your past sinfulness and rejoice in your Lord today and tomorrow and for the rest of your life. Say to yourself: “I will remember my sin so that I might remember my savior.” And use this passion and exultation and joy as fuel to tell other wretched sinners about the savior of wretched sinners – of whom we all once were.
As we come to the table, those of us who are believers remember the sacrifice that made it possible for God to justify wretched sinners like us. We remember that was impossible with men was possible with God. Let us be moved to rejoice in this Savior and to serve him with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength. Amen.